The present invention relates to a marine reversing gear assembly disposed between an internal combustion engine and a propeller shaft. The marine reversing gear assembly transfers the driving power of the internal combustion engine to a propeller by switching the rotation direction forward and backward (reverse) while decelerating.
A ship provided with a marine reversing gear assembly keeps the forward or reverse clutch engaged by supplying working oil to a hydraulic forward or reverse clutch, and rotates a propeller shaft by transferring the torque of the internal combustion engine to the output shaft through the forward or reverse clutch.
When a sail-fitted ship is sailing, its internal combustion engine is stopped. Furthermore, in a ship provided with two engines and two propeller shafts, even if one of the internal combustion engines breaks down, the ship can cruise using the unbroken internal combustion engine. In this case, the propeller rotates while receiving the flow of a stream of water. Since such rotation is transferred to a driven gear or shaft of the marine reduction-reversing gear, a system for supplying lubricating oil becomes necessary. Therefore, equipment that can lock the rotation of a propeller without providing such a system even when the propeller receives the flow of a stream of water is proposed (for example, see U.S. Pat. No. 3,831,447).
Such a locking device is structured so that the locking mechanism member in the locking device that is provided in the reduction-reversing gear is operated by actuating a hydraulic actuator using the pressure of lubricating oil in the lubricating oil pump provided on the internal combustion engine. Therefore, unless both an internal combustion engine and a reduction-reversing gear are provided, connection cannot be obtained between the lubricating oil circuit in the internal combustion engine and the locking mechanism member in the reduction-reversing gear. This limits the order of the steps of attaching the propeller driving parts to the ship. Furthermore, the operability of the locking mechanism member is decreased by resistance in the pipe channel since the length of the pipe channel from the lubricating oil pump to the hydraulic actuator becomes longer.